Time With The Buddha

I must work tomorrow, a paid holiday for many folks in our world.  For me, I try not to think about the families that will be gathering tomorrow eating dried out BBQ, macaroni salad dosed with enough fat to stop a beating heart, time together and dessert, ah dessert. It is Monday and I am going to work and no, it isn't time and a half I shall be earning.  Still, I have a job today.

The only benefits besides getting a paycheck that I receive is a helluva discount to purchase nursery items.  Working inside a thriving business means you walk by things, see plants delivered fresh out of the grower's grasp- stuff you think about buying with your very hard earned wages, at a discount.  It feels like something though not dental insurance exactly.

I began, weeks ago to walk by this Buddha statue and pause to rub his bald head.  Sure, one is supposed to rub his belly but his head is hip level for me.  A smiling Buddha, I began to ask for hope to visit my heart, for painful times to melt away, for release, for success, for a good day or just about any kind of magic that might help me understand how I got here. I passed him several times a day.  I rubbed his head, usually counterclockwise.

I know that The Buddha had a few things to say about suffering and so, he is an entity, though no less made mystical than Jesus or Joe Smith.  "Life is difficult, the Buddha said...The Buddha acknowledged the struggles of ordinary life-we age, we get sick, and eventually we die; we don't get what we want, we get what we don't want, and even the good times pass..."-Coffee With The Buddha by Joan Duncan Oliver.

Sometimes we do get what we want using our 40% discount on hard goods in the nursery like The Buddha himself planted on our patio at home!